But while the upper-class Spaniard is intent on the pursuit of wealth and indifferent to higher things, the peasant has an ideal which he has set before him, and for which he makes every effort in his power, against obstacles which anywhere but in Spain would be inconceivable. And that ideal, as has been said, is some sort of education for his children, whom he does not wish to be handicapped, as he has been, by inability to read and write. If he can only pay for the schooling of one child, that child has to share his knowledge with the rest of the family, reading to them all he can get to read, and sometimes even passing on the little instruction he has received, and teaching his parents and brothers and sisters their letters at night, after the day’s work is done.[4] And his chosen reading is not the republican, or socialist, or anarchical stuff against which the Church inveighs with theological fervour as the mental pabulum beloved of the masses, but certain papers with moderate Liberal views, which preach education and loyalty to existing institutions as the best hope for the country. These papers point out that any upheaval of the social order, with its necessarily attendant paralysis of trade and agriculture, can only result in making the hard lot of the labourer harder still; and the peasant, whom his masters take to be indifferent and half brutal, has the sense to see the wisdom of this teaching and to be guided by it. That the Ultramontane party should maintain, as they do, that every disturbance that may occur in Spain is the fruit of the working man’s attachment to seditious and anti-religious literature, is only another proof of their determination to misrepresent or slander him. Had this been the case, no measures of repression would have saved Spain, in July 1909, from an outburst of rage against the Religious Orders all over the country. That the fires lighted in Barcelona did not spread was not due to the suspension of the Constitution or to any terrorism exercised by the priest-ridden Government of Señor Maura. The people were kept in bounds by the influence of their chosen organ, the _Liberal_, which costs less than a farthing and has the largest circulation of any paper in Spain. And this paper, like the others of its party and all the best of the Radical and Republican Press, throughout all the turmoil of the three months before the Maura Ministry fell, steadily urged the people to have patience, keep the peace, and show by their actions that they were worthy of liberty. THE RELIGION OF THE PEOPLE [Illustration: PEASANT WOMEN. [To face page 39.] CHAPTER II THE RELIGION OF THE PEOPLE